Turbo training - Right or wrong way???

heathy_76

Hi, I recently replied to a thread on turbo training with some details on what training I have been doing recently and received a couple of replies saying that I may be wasting my time.

viewtopic.php?f=40011&t=12841436&p=17498379#p17498379

I have been training for the last 3 weeks with a mixture of 1 hour sessions in HRM zone 2 (to ride faster on the road) and 30 min sessions of interval training -1 min flatout, 4 mins recovery and repeat x5 (to lose some weight). I chose these sessions after some research and using the advice from an article on Bikeradar.

Now I knew that 1 hour in HRM zone 2 wasn't going to be long enough; I planned to do longer but the boredom defeats me every time.
But, so far I have been really pleased with the results. My clothes are looser, the Mrs says I look slimmer and I am riding faster when I get out on the road. All good, until yesterday.

Am I wasting my time with what I am doing?
Or any further advice, all is greatly received?

jgsi

probably sack the lower end work off the turbo.. build up stamina and endurance on the road... as you already admit, 1 hour is probably not long enough.
use the turbo for higher end interval type of training.. anything from 20 to 60 minutes is all good.

DaveL

If your getting bored (that's why I got rid of mine), on your long session throw in some Tabata intervals every 10 or 15 minutes, the time flies as you are always dreading the next interval because they are brutal.

Tabata Method
A popular regimen based on a 1996 study[2] uses 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise (at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max) followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles). Tabata called this the IE1 protocol.[3] In the original study, athletes using this method trained 4 times per week, plus another day of steady-state training, and obtained gains similar to a group of athletes who did steady state (70% VO2max) training 5 times per week. The steady state group had a higher VO2max at the end (from 52 to 57 ml/kg/min), but the Tabata group had started lower and gained more overall (from 48 to 55 ml/kg/min). Also, only the Tabata group had gained anaerobic capacity benefits.

Dave

GiantMike

It depends what you're doing it for. If it's to get slimmer then any effort that burns calories is good. Turbos are very boring, so I like to watch Top Gear so I can rant at how the BBC is wasting my licence fee.

If you're training for a specific event or a type of riding then you may need to be more specific with your training to achieve specific results.

heathy_76

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

So as I have noticed a difference in my average speed when out on the road, was that from the 1 hour zone 2 sessions or the interval training? (or neither - I have a suspicion that the extra speed has been generated from the resistance on the turbo.)

I will defo look into the Tabata training too. Anything to break up the boredom.

SBezza

What about 1 hour at Z3, this will help with endurance, though not as much as more time in Z2/Z3. I wouldn't just do intervals all the time, they will eventually tire you out.

To combat boredom, try MP3 players, watch films etc. If you want to increase endurance you need to do the hours unfortunately, there is no short cut to endurance fitness.

Also with the intervals try longer intervals at a slightly lower level than you are doing with the 1 min flatout intervals. Weight loss will come from burning calories, and although HIIT helps with weightloss, if you did longer intervals you might find you actually burn more calories.

bigpikle

It's a simple balance of time vs intensity. To get the benefits from low intensity work like L2 you need more volume, so if you can only stick 1 hour t a time then ride much harder for an hour. If your bored on the turbo you're not goin hard enough!

Why not do your hour at a pace that's tough to sustain for the full session rather than one that needs 3+ hours to really give any benefit? Riding at a 'tempo' pace of HR zone 3 in most books, would give that and if you break it down a bit into 7 mins of fairly hard pace followed by 3 mins harder pace, and then repeat that block for an hour (no rest intervals as you're not going that hard) then you can accumulate a good block of (more interesting) worthwhile training. Warm up, 6 repeats of that block and a few mins to cool down is a little over an hour but will deliver much more than an hour twiddling at L2 getting bored!

I'd also ditch those 1 min intervals as 4 mins of recovery means in an hour your barely getting any worthwhile work done. Google 2x20 for a session that I'd argue is MUCH more valuable to most people at this time of year.

ddraver

Get some of these - http://www.thesufferfest.com/

Used by many on here....

heathy_76

Brilliant, plenty of advice to work with.
It's much appreciated, thank you all.

bmwoner

Hello, there is a lot of mis information above.

You need to be in Zone 1, for longer, and 80%-90% of your sessions. if you are in zone 2 for an hour, you're just not fit enough and that will only hamper your progress.

All good athletes do basic zone one, up to 80% of max HR and keep this up, as builds up your core fitness for the extreme 2 and three efforts.

Zone two is a bit pointless, you should either be at race pace, zone three, or training at lower levels.

Pross

bmwoner wrote:

Hello, there is a lot of mis information above.

You need to be in Zone 1, for longer, and 80%-90% of your sessions. if you are in zone 2 for an hour, you're just not fit enough and that will only hamper your progress.

All good athletes do basic zone one, up to 80% of max HR and keep this up, as builds up your core fitness for the extreme 2 and three efforts.

Zone two is a bit pointless, you should either be at race pace, zone three, or training at lower levels.

?

heathy_76

Pross wrote:

bmwoner wrote:

Hello, there is a lot of mis information above.

You need to be in Zone 1, for longer, and 80%-90% of your sessions. if you are in zone 2 for an hour, you're just not fit enough and that will only hamper your progress.

All good athletes do basic zone one, up to 80% of max HR and keep this up, as builds up your core fitness for the extreme 2 and three efforts.

Zone two is a bit pointless, you should either be at race pace, zone three, or training at lower levels.

?

+1

CakeLovinBeast

Please don't feed the (obvious) troll...

bmwoner

That's a great opening response to a new forum. There is no analytically rigourous responses other than "trolling" which is a shame.

To dispell that one then here are some links to help, odldy one from this site too:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/cycling ... ng-success

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... tness-872/

It sounds odd I know to get on your bike and not hammer it on a Turbo or on the road, but the above shows there is some science behind my post and that overdoing Z2/3 work will have a negative impact on your training progress.

heathy_76

I think I should clarify; I have been using a 5 zone system (which I found on this website) and what I have been doing is roughly the same as bmwoner has described in his latest post, low hrm rides some days and high hrm intervals on other days.

In reality, I am doing the Cheshire Cat on Sunday so I will find out one way another if my training has worked or not.
Again, thanks to all for your input.
P.S. welcome to the forum Bmwoner.

mattshrops

heathy_76 wrote:

Pross wrote:

bmwoner wrote:

Hello, there is a lot of mis information above.

You need to be in Zone 1, for longer, and 80%-90% of your sessions. if you are in zone 2 for an hour, you're just not fit enough and that will only hamper your progress.

All good athletes do basic zone one, up to 80% of max HR and keep this up, as builds up your core fitness for the extreme 2 and three efforts.

Zone two is a bit pointless, you should either be at race pace, zone three, or training at lower levels.

?

+1

Using the 5 zone system 80% mhr is top of zone 2.Which is correct zone for endurance imo.

zone 4 is race pace.
Perfect example of how you need to filter answers given. Who says i know anything either?

Pross

bmwoner wrote:

That's a great opening response to a new forum. There is no analytically rigourous responses other than "trolling" which is a shame.

To dispell that one then here are some links to help, odldy one from this site too:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/cycling ... ng-success

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... tness-872/

It sounds odd I know to get on your bike and not hammer it on a Turbo or on the road, but the above shows there is some science behind my post and that overdoing Z2/3 work will have a negative impact on your training progress.

Unfortunately your initial response didn't explain the zone system you are using. You just came in all guns blazing about misinformation.

Here are some alternatives (and possibly more commonly used) HR zone examples

http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/heart_rate/heart_rate_zone_calculator_abcc_bcf.html

http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bcfguide.html

amaferanga

bmwoner wrote:

That's a great opening response to a new forum. There is no analytically rigourous responses other than "trolling" which is a shame.

To dispell that one then here are some links to help, odldy one from this site too:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/cycling ... ng-success

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... tness-872/

It sounds odd I know to get on your bike and not hammer it on a Turbo or on the road, but the above shows there is some science behind my post and that overdoing Z2/3 work will have a negative impact on your training progress.

The trouble with recommending lot's of long steady miles is that most people don't have time to do LOTS of long steady miles. So they do not very much long steady miles and nothing else and expect that it'll work the same. But it doesn't. You only need to do LOTS of long steady miles if you have time to ride, I dunno, maybe 20 hours a week or more.